SECRETS OF THE WATCH HOUSE BY JENNY ASHCROFT

Books like this make me glad I’m parsimonious with my five star reviews, because Secrets of the Watch House is totally stunning. Wonderful characters, a gripping narrative, and a perfectly researched period piece. I can ask no more from a book, and it’s established Jenny Ashcroft as one of my favourite authors.

Violet Ellis accepts a job as secretary on a remote Cornish island, in part because she is a little in love with the owner, James. It’s a love she never expects to be reciprocated, but there is nothing to keep her in London and a new life beckons. Even before she arrives on the island she knows James’ late wife’s death just eighteen months before courted controversy, but she doesn’t understand its chilling legacy until she arrives on the island.

The cast of characters is brilliantly drawn, each one so rich in detail they appear on the page fully formed. But most of them have secrets too, and the unravelling of these makes the book impossible to put down, the final denouement leaving me breathless.

The skill that has gone into this book is phenomenal. As a reader, it’s seamless. As a writer I’d like to unpick it, so that one day I could maybe, just maybe, create something almost as good.